Sigiria Forest #9: Hornbill Haven
The cache, a small plastic camo-pot, is hidden alongside the trail at about head height behind bark pieces in a hole in a remarkable tree on the side away from the Getathuru river in the secluded, shady, southernmost part of Sigiria Forest.
To reach the cache (refer to trails map in the Gallery or download a Google Earth file of the trails here): after paying the forest entrance fee, from the Parking at the Karura Forest entrance (Gate A) to the east off Limuru road @ S 01 14.826 E 36 49.021 head back out of the gate and down to the main road. Cross this busy road (carefully!) and pick up the access track to the Sigiria Forest a short distance north @ S 01 14.993 E 36 48.931 follow this down a short distance and across the stream to the Sigiria Forest Gate @ S 01 14.804 E 36 48.901 close to the trailhead at Junction 54. From here head left SW along the trail starting just behind the gate hut towards the cache location.
Forest Entry Fees (free parking)
Open from 06h00-18h00
Citizen (adult/child): Kshs 100/40
Resident: Kshs 200/100
Non-Resident: Kshs 600/300
Permission to place the cache was kindly granted by the Director of the Kenya Forest Service
From the cache location, I heard the unmistakable braying call of the spectacular Silvery Cheeked Hornbill (Bycanistes or Ceratogymna brevis).
This is a large(75-80cm, 30-32", 1-1.4kg) black forest hornbill with a silvery-grey head, white underparts and a massive bill having a large high wedge-
shaped and pale cream casque on top which may extend past the tip of the bill. The female is slightly smaller than the male and has a significantly smaller casque. It is mature at 3-6 years and can live up to 50 years!
The call is a strident, loud goat-like bleating or braying wa-wa-wa-wa making a remarkable din especially when several birds call together.
Family parties are widespread and locally common in highland tall evergreen forests, woodlands, mature suburban gardens and parks (common - regularly visiting fruiting trees - in Nairobi) east of the Rift Valley <2,750m in Kenya, and in eastern Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa. Usually they live in pairs making long flights to and from tall trees in the morning and evening. They sometimes roost in large numbers.
It is a monogamous species, with pairs making an enclosed nest by dabbing mud over the opening to a suitable tree hollow, breeding in spring (mainly Sept-Oct) and laying clutches of 1-3 white eggs. The female squeezes inside this hollow nest and the male patches up the opening to the nest, leaving only a small slit through which he delivers food while she incubates her.
Food is brought to the nest as a gullet full of fruits, which are regurgitated one at a time. Food scraps and droppings are passed out of the vertical slit. At one nest, it was estimated the male delivered 24,000 fruits in the course of the 40-day incubation + 80-day nestling period - about 200 fruits a day! Once the chicks are ready to fly, the female then breaks the mud wall and comes out of the nest with her chicks. While inside the nest, the female undergoes a complete feather moult. The young then stay with both parents for about 80 days.
It feeds on fruits (eg. figs), insects, small birds (eg. pigeons), fruit bats, small reptiles and insects found in the tree canopy.